Renesas introduces APE6 8-core processor for phones and tablets

Japanese chip-maker Renesas plans to launch a new mobile processor that bears an uncanny resemblance to Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa. Like the Samsung chip, the new Renesas APE6 is an 8-core chip that pairs 4 ARM Cortex-A15 processor cores with 4 lower-power ARM Cortex-A7 cores.

Since the chip uses ARM’s big.LITTLE technology, that means that while the APE6 is technically an 8-core chip, you’ll only actually use 4 cores at a time most of the time. Basic tasks can be handled by the lower-power ARM Cortex-A7 components, while the higher performance ARM Cortex-A15 bits will kick in when you need them.

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I wonder if they’re going to have similar power consumption issues as Samsungs Octa. The Octa can consume close to 6 W of power when the CPU is under load. That doesn’t include the GPU.

http://soltesza.wordpress.com/ sola

Probably, since the A15s are designed to be that power hungry.

Of course, it is also the question of the process node(s) they use but the Sammy 32nm process is not that far from the 28nm top-of-the line TSMC process available for third parties.

Matt

It’d be nice if reviewers start measuring battery life during certain usage scenarios like with notebooks. Most articles I see just mention some hours based on very vague usage.

Andy

I thought Renesas was Japanese.

http://www.liliputing.com/ Brad Linder

I think you’re right. Remind me to double-check these things before taking Engadget’s word for it.

Matt

You shouldn’t Engadget’s word for anything not copied and pasted from company’s press releases or other documents.

http://soltesza.wordpress.com/ sola

It seems there will be many players with octa-A15/A7 designs on the market.

I hope OEMs start designing laptops with these SOCs since these are desktop-class processors even if low-end ones.

Dihydrogen

To me the A7 cores are a lot more impressive than the A15s…Better performance and consume far less power per core basis than the 1GHz A8s of late 2010s. Amazing eh? Considering ICS browser still flies on a 1GHz A8.